The application of radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems and methods in, for example, broadband wireless access networks has attracted much attention because it facilitates, inter alia, the transmission of data using a variety of protocols over a single fiber. Accordingly, RoF allows for the delivery of data to remote access units (RAUs) serving a variety of protocols. Such remote access units may include, for instance, cellular base stations and Wi-Fi Access Points for providing end-users access to multi-media content delivered via the Internet.
With the employment of the RoF technique, many of the required radio frequency (RF) signal processing functions can be performed at a centralized location prior to being distributed to the RAUs via the optical fibers. This provides important cost savings, allowing the RAUs to be simplified significantly, as they may only need to perform relatively basic optoelectronic conversion, filtering, and/or amplification functions.
Considering the ever-increasing capacity in data transmission by RF and optical carrier signals, efficient interfacing between the RF signals and optical signals at the centralized location is crucial.
Accordingly, the penetration of optical fibers for successfully implementing ROF-based or other broadband networks may largely depend on the performance and the costs of optical transceivers acting as the optical-radio interface. Cost-effective optical transceivers are thus expected to accelerate the introduction of wireless broadband services for making them more readily available in public venues.
The description above is presented as a general overview of related art in this field and should not be construed as an admission that any of the information it contains constitutes prior art against the present patent application.